It now appears to be only a matter of hours before Hurricane Ike slams into the Texas coast.
Ike is currently a Category 2 storm with wind speeds of 105 miles an hour. By the time Ike reaches Texas, the winds may be anywhere from 111 and 155 miles an hour. The storm surge could be as high as 20 feet.
"If you live in mandatory evacuation areas and the storm surge comes, you won't have a house. It's not a question of riding it out."
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett
According to the Galveston County Daily News, the storm surge was already causing flooding in Galveston's downtown area this morning.
The Daily News' weather expert, Stan Blazyk, is blunt about the prospects.
"Unless Ike's track takes a sudden and currently unexpected turn to the north well east of Galveston Island, we are facing the highest tidal surge since at least the 1900 Storm," Blazyk writes (referring to the 1900 hurricane that wiped out Galveston), "and possibly even exceeding that if the highest projected tidal surge materializes."
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